When I look at this ridiculous gif, I can’t help but think of the chorus to that Nellie Furtado song about being a bird: “I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away, don't know where my soul is, I don't know where my home is” followed by another batch of “I'm like a bird, I'll only fly away.” Something tells me the students of Zurich University of the Arts, who designed this contraption, feel the same.
This odd-looking apparatus is called the Birdly and its purpose is to compliment the Oculus Rift’s virtual reality components in an effort to explore mediated flying by throwing bodily sensation into the lot.
Birdly doesn’t simply throw these things at you like some child’s limp underhand softball toss, no sir, Birdly blasts you in the face with it; literally, I’m not joking. A fan is mounted in front of your nose to blast air at increasing speeds to enhance the notion of wind during downward flight. Birdly takes immersion into a god-like realm of awesomeness by tapping into your physical and olfactory senses in addition to the visual and aural sensations of standard virtual reality.
The simulation accompanying the device lets you flying as a bird over a rural landscape. Forward-motion is created by flapping your arms in a rhythmic fashion (on you’ve strapped yourself into the harness). Movements in the hands and arms directly correlate to the wings and primary flight feathers. Built-in hydraulics further augment the experience by enabling forward, backward, left, and right motion. There’s even a release of specific smells to match the landscape you’re flying over.
If given the chance, I’d be all over this thing in a heartbeat regardless of how utterly ridiculous I must look to the outside world.
Via Birdly
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